You're Not Alone
by sailergirl612
Summary: Maggie and her twin sister Nina have been together their entire life, and are now in their fourth year at Hogwarts along with their best friends Fred and George Weasley. So when Nina gets petrified, who will Maggie turn to? Please Review!
1. Chapter 1: Platform 9 and Three Quarters

Chapter 1: Platform 9 ¾

The car ride seemed endless. The little kids in the back were screaming, and it smelled really bad. Finally they reached their destination: King's Cross Station. "Here's your stop, girls," Mrs. Cole said from the front.

"What?" Maggie shrieked. "You're just going to leave us here?"

"Yes, I am," Mrs. Cole replied. "You two are old enough to find your way around the station. And do you not see all of the kids I have with me? How would I take _them_ into the station and come back out with all of them?"

Maggie sighed. _We're just going to have to wing it, _she thought. She looked over to Nina, who was smiling and looking confident. _At least I'll have her._

"Joshua, help them get their… trunks...into a trolley, and come straight back!" Mrs. Cole ordered. She couldn't stand the fact that when the school bought them suitcases, they bought them old-fashioned trunks. Mrs. Cole was a practical woman, and, according to her, trunks were not practical.

"Yes, Mrs. Cole," replied Josh, smirking. Josh was three years older than her and one of her favorite people in the orphanage besides Nina, her twin, and Carli, her best friend. Tall with long, wavy dark hair, he got out of the van and opened up the trunk. Maggie and Nina got out and followed him. They watched him pull the trunks out and heave them onto the sidewalk. Then they got a trolley and put the trunks into it. "Man, your school sure got you guys some weird trunks," Josh remarked.

"Yup," Nina said, unconcerned. "Well, I'll see you at Christmas, Josh!" She said brightly, turning and walking down towards the tracks with the trolley.

"Have a good term!" He called after her. "Now, you be good, Margaret-Suzanne," he said, turning to Maggie, who scowled. She hated it when he used her full name. "Don't let me hear about you getting into trouble or bringing your sister down with you or anything like that."

"Yeah 'because that's always me…." Maggie muttered. Josh just smiled. "Be good, and make friends, and have fun, and I'll see you at Christmas." He hugged her, and Maggie hugged him hard. She was really going to miss him. "See you at Christmas," she said, and danced down the hall, twirling to look back at Josh. He waved, and she waved back, and then continued down the hall until she caught up to Nina.

It took forever for them to find the train. There was just no platform 9¾ like on the ticket. Looking lost, the two girls waited on platform 10 for someone else from Hogwarts to come. They had decided to give up when a boy looking a little older came along with his two parents. On his trolley, he had his trunk and an _owl_! They had seen owls like that when they had gone to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. The boy and his parents came closer, and the mother looked down at the two girls and said "Do you two need help getting onto the platform?"

"Yes," They answered in unison. The woman smiled knowingly at their terrified faces. "It's nothing to worry about," she assured them. "You just have to walk into the wall, and you'll be on the platform. Now, dear," she said, looking at Nina, would you like to go through with my husband Amos? He can take your cart." Looking scared but confident, Nina nodded and let Amos take the cart. He gave her a reassuring smile and together, they walked through the wall. Had Maggie blinked, she would have missed it. One second they were there, and the next they were gone.

"Where'd they go?" Maggie asked excitedly.

"Onto the platform, dear. Now, would you like to go through with Cedric? This is his second year at Hogwarts, and he'll guide you through it. I just want to make sure no muggles are watching, and then I'll follow you on."

"Okay," Maggie said timidly, not altogether reassured. Cedric looked confident enough, though, so she decided to trust him. "Hi," Cedric said. "What's your name?'

"I'm Maggie," she told him.

"Don't be nervous, okay?" he said. "You won't crash; you'll just go right through. There's nothing to worry about."

She looked at him, then back to the wall. "Okay," she said nervously. She grabbed onto his trolley, and they started to run. She winced when they approached the wall, expecting a crash, but instead they just kept going. When she opened her eyes, they were standing on a different platform, next to a scarlet train.

"Wow," was all she could say. Cedric grinned at her, and then his mother came through, smiling. "Everyone all right? Good. Ah, here's Amos," she said.

Maggie looked at Nina, who looked like she was in shock. "That was SO COOL!" she exclaimed. "I thought we were going to crash, but then we didn't and I was so shocked! How were you? Did you scream? I think I did….."

"Wow, Nine," Maggie said, impressed. "I don't think I've seen you this worked up about anything before. You must really be shocked." Nina just nodded. "_I_ didn't scream though. I thought I would, but I didn't. I just flinched. And—oh, wait, where'd Cedric go?"

Cedric and his family were nowhere to be found, so the girls took their trunks over to an empty compartment, and attempted to lift their trunks into it, but with little results. Nina said "I'll be back," to her sister, and then disappeared into the crowd. She came back with a stocky, red-haired boy who looked like he might be sixteen. Nina introduced them. "This is Charlie, he's a prefect, and he's going to help us get our trunks into the compartment."

"Oh, okay," she said, a little taken aback from her introduction. "Nice to meet you, Charlie."

"Nice to meet you, too, Maggie," Obviously Nina had introduced her without even being there. Charlie loaded their trunks into the compartment one at a time, and then faced them. "Hey, would you mind if my brothers shared a compartment with you? They're first years, too."

"Sure," Nina answered immediately. "We'd love to meet them."

"Speak for yourself," Maggie muttered to her as Charlie went to get his brothers. "We don't even know them."

"Well, then we'll get to know them now," Nina answered. "We'll either get to know friends, or enemies. Either way, we get to meet people." Maggie had to agree, because she had a point.

Just then Charlie came back with seven other redheaded people; a short and plump woman, a tall man, a slightly older boy, two identical boys who looked about their age, a young boy, and a little girl. "Maggie, Nina," Charlie began, "This is my parents, my brother Percy, my twin brothers Fred and George, my youngest brother Ron, and my little sister Ginny. Fred and George are starting Hogwarts this year, too."

"Hi," Maggie and Nina greeted everyone.

Charlie and his father loaded Fred and George's trunks into their compartment, and just then they looked at the clock, and realized they only had two minutes to get onto the train. Fred, George, Percy, and Charlie said goodbye to their parents, Ron, and Ginny and waved goodbye to them once they were on the train. When they could no longer see the platform, Charlie and Percy went to sit with their friends.

"So," one of the twins began when they were alone, "Where are you guys from?"

"London," Nina answered immediately. "We were brought up in an orphanage."

"Oh," both of them answered at once. "I'm so sorry…. Um, if you don't mind me asking," The one on the left said slowly, "what happened to your parents?"

Maggie looked away. She never liked to talk about it if she could avoid it. Nina, however, didn't really care. She was concerned with the family they had built at the orphanage, and never dwelt on what could have been. She answered without hesitation, "Our mum died just after we were born, and our dad didn't want us. We found out a little while ago that he didn't want the, uh, 'burden of raising two witches'. He's such a loser."

"Oh…. I'm so sorry," the one on the left said again, this time mainly to Maggie.

"It's okay," she said, after a slight pause. "I just try not to think about it too often…. If you don't mind _me_ asking, which one of you is Fred and which one is George?"

The twins broke into identical evil grins. "Who do you think I am?" the one on the right asked.

"Hmm….." she said slowly. "I think you're…. Fred?" His smile faded. "Lucky guess," he said shortly. Maggie smiled triumphantly.

The rest of the train ride was one of the happiest times of her life. The twins told them about the wizarding world, and about Hogwarts, and by the time they got out of the train, they were both feeling less anxious. When she saw the castle for the first time, while they were crossing the lake on boats, Maggie felt sure that something was going right in her life for the first time.


	2. Chapter 2: Going Back To Hogwarts

Sorry, I forgot to explain the last chapter. That was just a flashback, and it's not a part of the story. This is the beginning of the story. Sorry for any confusion! Please review after you read I would really appreciate some feedback!

Chapter 2: Going Back to Hogwarts

"Maggie…. Mags…. Maggie…. MARGARET-SUZANNE!"

"What?" Maggie asked, dazed.

"I asked you how your summer was," George said.

"Oh…. Did you?"

"Yes, I did," he replied, rolling his eyes. "You were really out of it this time, weren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess…. You know how short my attention span is."

"Yes, we do, and so do, McGonagall, and Flitwick, and Snape, and Binns-" Fred began, but Maggie cut him off.

"Shut up, Fred!" Maggie yelled at him. Fred only smirked. Next to her, Nina was laughing.

"Oh, calm down Mag. It's not like it's not true. Anyways, how was your summer?" George asked again.

"Not bad. I worked part time at the ice cream shop down in Diagon Alley, so I actually have some money now! But that's pretty much it. Yours?"

"Well, I didn't make money, but it wasn't bad. Flew a car to Harry's and rescued him in the middle of the night with Ron. Then got yelled at by Mum. Pretty normal summer."

"Normal? You flew a car-I don't know how, and I don't want to-and you think that's normal?" Maggie said incredulously while Nina rolled her eyes.

"Well, yeah, I mean, it's normal for us." Fred said nonchalantly.

"You two amaze me. How did you get the car to fly in the first place?" Nina asked.

"Our dad enchanted it on his own- we only borrowed it." Fred said, smirking. "Mum wasn't too happy when she found out what he did. Nor was she happy when she found out what we did. But that's considered a normal summer for our family. Coming back to you, how are all of your friends that you told us about?"

"Carli's fine... She got a scholarship to a dancing school, so she left for that a couple weeks ago. Josh is….. Josh. There aren't really any words for him. He's been hanging out with other people a lot, so I don't see him a lot."

"They're all jerks," Nina added disgustedly. "Why, we have no idea. But whatever. It's not important now."

"All right, then," Fred said. "Exploding Snap, anyone?"

That was what they did for most of the train ride. A little way in, Lee Jordan came in and joined them for the rest of the ride. When it started to get dark, they changed into their robes and started talking about what to expect this year.

Once the train had pulled in to Hogsmeade Station, they all got off the train and into one of the carriages.

"Where do you reckon Ron is?" George asked, looking worried. "I haven't seen him since we got onto the platform."

"I don't know, but he's all right, wherever he is. He's probably off doing his own thing with Harry," Fred said reassuringly, but he too looked worried.

They made their way up to the castle and into the great hall. Maggie felt so relieved to be back because the summer had felt so long. The castle looked just like she remembered it- the four long tables in the great hall, the four giant hourglasses counting all of the house points, the staff table- everything was perfect.

When they sat down, Fred and George scanned the table for Ron and Harry, but never saw them. They both denied it, but they looked pretty worried. Maggie couldn't blame them.

Right before the Sorting, a second-year Hufflepuff screamed and pointed out the window. Everyone turned and looked, and they all saw a flying car go straight past the window.

"No!" Fred shouted. "They took the car without us!"

"They stole your car?" Nina asked, laughing.

"Apparently," George answered bitterly.

"Sucks for you!" she snickered.

"And for them," Maggie said quietly as she saw Snape practically run out the door. "They're going to in so much trouble….." She saw McGonagall follow him after talking to Dumbledore.

"Who cares?" Fred asked. "They've been in trouble before, and they'll be in trouble again. Nothing wrong with that."

Maggie just shrugged as Dumbledore got to his feet and said, "Let us begin with the Sorting." The hall fell silent.

One by one, the first years walked up when their name was called and had the sorting hat place on their heads and announced what house they were in. They all clapped when a Gryffindor joined them at their table, and Fred and George hissed when a new Slytherin sat down across the hall from them.

Finally it was Ginny Weasley's turn to be sorted, and Fred and George watched intently. Her face was almost as red as her flaming hair when she finally reached the stool. When the Sorting Hat was placed on her head, it called out "GRYFFINDOR!" and Fred and George clapped and cheered louder than anyone. Ginny looked so relieved to sit down at the Gryffindor table and not have everyone staring at her.

At last, it was time to eat. The feast looked as good as ever, and no one wasted any time talking, and dove straight in for their food.

When the feast was over, they found a prefect, who told them the new password for the Gryffindor common room was 'wattlebird', and they headed up there. When they got there, Ron and Harry were sitting there, and immediately upon seeing them, all the Gryffindors cheered and crowded around them. When the four of them managed to squeeze themselves into the crowd, Fred and George both yelled "Why couldn't we've come in the car, eh?" and looked at the two of them for an answer they never got. Maggie turned to her sister and said, "I'm going upstairs." Nina nodded, and the two of them said goodnight to Fred and George and went up to their dormitory.

It looked as familiar as ever, and Maggie was so relieved to go to sleep in her large four-poster bed. It had been a great, but long, day.

Hope you liked it! Please review!


	3. Chapter 3: Fun With Lockhart

Chapter 3: Fun With Lockhart

The next morning, Maggie was the first one up in her dormitory. The clock on the wall read six o'clock. She sat up and gave a loud yawn to see who would wake up. She heard Nina groan from the bed next to her. "Nina," she whispered. "Wake up."

"What do you want?" Nina growled.

"I couldn't sleep," She said softly.

"So go for a run, and leave me alone," She mumbled, and rolled over, facing away from her sister.

"Fine," She said, and got changed as loudly as she could. All this time, however, the other girls never stirred.

On her way out, Maggie looked at Nina to see if she was asleep yet, and wasn't disappointed.

There was no one in the common room on her way down, and the corridors were deserted as well. Outside, there were only a few clouds in the sky, and it looked absolutely beautiful. As she looked around, she saw the Whomping Willow, and it looked broken. She could see the tire marks where Harry and Ron had landed their car the night before. She laughed to herself as she kept going.

A few hours later, she was walking down the stairs towards the Great Hall with Nina. As she was walking down, she saw a tall, sandy head walking towards the Great Hall as well. "CEDRIC!" She yelled as loud as she could, and she saw him turn around and grin. She sprinted down the rest of the stairs towards him. "I'll just wait here, then!" Nina called after her. Maggie didn't stop, and barely turned around enough to give her a thumbs-up.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she ran straight into him. "Oh my god how are you? I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Geez, breathe a little," Cedric said, rolling his eyes. "I'm fine. How have you been?"

"Pretty good….. It wasn't a bad summer."

"Wow, you look like you've been bursting to say something and all you can say is that it's been a pretty good summer?"

"What else do you want me to say?"

"I don't know, but you could elaborate a little bit."

"Fine," She sighed. "My summer was amazing. I worked at the ice cream shop in Diagon Alley, and it was great to see my friends, and I danced the whole summer. Happy?"

"As a clam," He smirked.

On the stairs, Nina was watching her sister and Cedric. God, that girl could talk, she thought. Tick Tock…. She had been standing there for almost five minutes when Fred and George came down the stairs. "Where's Maggie?" George asked.

"Catching up with Diggory," Nina said with a sigh. She saw George's face darken a bit. After a minute, she said "I'm tired of waiting for her. She can catch up with us in the Great Hall."

They walked into the Hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table. A few minutes later Maggie walked over, followed by Harry and Ron who sat a few places down from them. They had all begun to eat when the mail arrived. A gray owl crashed into the pitcher in front of Hermione, and Ron just stared at what it carried with horror.

Fred and George looked from the owl to Ron's face, and grinned evilly. "Mum sent him a howler," Fred said, and Maggie could tell from his voice that this was the best thing that would happen to him all day. "What's a howler?" Nina asked, but George only said, "You'll see." Then Maggie saw smoke coming from the edges of the envelope, and Ron opened it with a shaking hand. At once, Mrs. Weasley's voice echoed throughout the Hall.

"STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE-"

On and on it went. Maggie thought it would never stop. Across from her, Fred and George were shaking with laughter. Only Mrs. Weasley's shout were louder than it. Finally, it concluded with "—YOU FATHER'S NOW FACING AN INQUIRIY AT WORK ANDIT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME." Then the letter burst into flames and there was silence, apart from Fred and George's laughter.

"Wow, I hope you don't do something like that," Nina said after chatter filled the Hall again. "Cause I really don't want to be sitting next to the kid with the howler."

Just then, McGonagall went up and down the table handing out schedules. "Yay, first class with the new teacher," Fred said glumly. "At least we're with the Ravenclaws- he'll pay attention to the smart people and leave us alone."

"Oh come on," Nina said. "He can't be that bad."

"Um, yes he can," Fred argued. "Look at him; he's completely absorbed with himself." They all looked up at the staff table, where Lockhart was talking animatedly to Professor Flitwick, gesturing to himself often.

"Well he has every right to be, I mean, he's completely gorgeous. Anyone with those good looks deserves attention. And have you read his books? He's amazing."Nina gushed, and Fred snorted.

"That's just your opinion. Maggie, is Lockhart completely gorgeous?"

Maggie studied Lockhart for a minute. Then she said slowly, "Well…. He has nice teeth…. And the potential to be extremely handsome…. But he's not my type."

"So what is your type then?" Nina cut in. "Tall guys with sandy hair?"

"Ha-ha, but no," Maggie said flatly.

"What about athletic redheads?" George asked, posing.

"You wish," Maggie told him, and hoped she was right.

They finished eating and made their way over to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and awaited Lockhart's arrival. Nina would gladly have sat in the front, but the others dragged her to the back row.

Ten minutes later, Lockhart had still not arrived. The Gryffindors all decided that if he wasn't there in five minutes, they would skip the rest of class. The Ravenclaws would have no part of their plan, because, according to Fred, "They would never skip class, the suck-ups."

They never got to leave, to everyone's disappointment. Lockhart arrived a few minutes after that. "So sorry, everyone, but I had an urgent meeting with Professor Sprout that I could not miss. I was just showing her how to properly care for a very rare and delicate tree. But don't think I'm out to get her job, of course," He said, waving a finger. "No, I prefer dealing with the dark arts, because I'm Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award—but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" He started laughing then, and looked as if he expected everyone in the class to laugh with him. Fred and George started laughing sarcastically then, and the whole class cracked up. Lockhart must have missed Fred and George's laughter, for he looked pleased.

"Now," he began excitedly. "Let's begin the class with a little quiz. Now don't worry," He said, for the class looked extremely unhappy. "It's nothing to worry about; I just want to see how much you got out of my books over the summer." He handed out the quiz, and when Maggie got hers, her first reaction was: What the heck? These questions make no sense.

She looked around to see if everyone else reacted like she did, and she wasn't disappointed. Fred and George were whispering excitedly to each other, and a few seconds later, they whispered something to Nina.

After, she turned to Maggie and whispered into her ear, "Put down spoof answers-don't take it seriously. Pass it on." Maggie nodded, and whispered the message to Angelina, who was sitting next to her.

The message must have gotten around to all of the Gryffindors, because at the end of the class, Lockhart was looking over their quizzes and was looking more and more unhappy as he progressed into the Gryffindors' papers. As the bell rang, he said shortly "We'll go over these papers at the beginning of the next class. I suggest to half of you that you refresh yourselves before then."

They walked out of the room laughing hysterically. "Okay, the best answer I put down was for number two: Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition is to be bitten by a vampire," Fred said immediately.

"No," Nina argued. "My answer for that was way better: To marry Professor Dumbledore." Everyone howled with laughter. "And for the next question: His greatest achievement to date is fulfilling his secret ambition." Everyone laughed harder at that one.

"You know what this means, George?" Asked Fred.

"Why yes I do," Answered George.

"What?" asked Maggie, confused.

"It means we're going to have some fun with Lockhart this year," They answered together, grinning evilly.


	4. Chapter 4: The Message

Sorry it took so long to update! I had a lot of stuff going on, and didn't know exactly how I wanted this to go. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though. I hope you like it, too! Please review!

Oh, and I know I forgot to do this, but I only own Maggie and Nina- not anything else you would recognize from the Harry Potter books or movies.

Chapter 4: The Message

On Halloween evening, the two sets of twins were walking into the Great Hall. "Oh my god it looks amazing!" Nina shouted. Indeed it did. There were live bats flying around everywhere, and floating twenty feet above where they would sit, there were lit jack-o-lanterns.

"How awesome would it be to have one of those and out it in our dormitory?" Maggie said, looking up at the pumpkins above their head once they had started eating.

"Oh, I don't know…." Nina said thoughtfully. "It would be kind of awkward if it was pointed at you, because it would be staring at you all night."

"Yeah, I guess…." She answered. "But what if it was pointed away from you? Would that be all right?"

"Sure, why not," She answered exasperated.

"Do you really want one, Mag?" George asked her.

"Yeah…. Why? What are you going to do?" Maggie asked suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing," He said to her and winked. But then he looked at Fred, who nodded. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at George. "Wingadrium Leviosa!" He shouted. George rose up twenty feet above the laughing crowd.

"Which one do you want?" he called down to Maggie.

Laughing, she answered, "That one!" and pointed to one slightly to his left. Fred moved his wand and sent George over to get it. He was now directly over her. Maggie looked up to the staff table to see if they would get in a lot of trouble. Most of the teachers looked at them disapprovingly, except for Dumbledore, who was wearing an amused expression. She could have sworn she saw him flick his wand slightly underneath the table.

Just then, one of the swarms of bats flew straight towards George. Everyone screamed. George tried to avoid them, but they came head on anyways. While trying to get away from them, George dropped the pumpkin right on top of Maggie's head. Maggie screamed louder than anyone as the pumpkin exploded over her head. The Great Hall rang with laughter. Maggie had tears in her eyes as George came down, horrified at what he had done.

"Maggie, I'm so sorry-" he began, but she cut him off.

"It's okay," she told him. "This is just really gross." Just then, she smelled something burning. "Hey what's-" she began, but then she looked down at her robes. The candle inside the pumpkin had caught on her robes.

"PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, and started thrashing. Nina had to hold her down so that George could put her out. "Mag, calm down," Nina told her soothingly. "It's out, you're okay." Maggie nodded and stopped trying to get away, but she was still trembling. Just then, Professor McGonagall came over to them.

"Is everything under control now?" she asked, scowling.

"Yes, Professor," They said in unison.

"Good, now, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasley, you will both serve a detention for disrupting our feast." Fred and George only nodded, because this was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Um, Professor," Maggie began shyly. "Would you mind clearing all of this stuff off of me?"

"Hmm," said McGonagall, thinking. "I'm sorry Miss Garndeur, but I'm afraid not. It seems that you are the instigator here, and I'm afraid that your punishment will be to remain like that for the remainder of the feast." Maggie stared at her in shock.

"But, Professor-," she began, but McGonagall cut her off.

"Would you rather have a detention?" This shut Maggie up.

"Wait," Fred interrupted looking outraged. "She started this whole thing and she doesn't have to have a detention?"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley," Said McGonagall, smirking slightly. "She played no part in your plan, she merely started it. Therefore, she will receive no detention." And with that, she went back up to her seat.

"I can't believe you didn't even get a detention," Fred complained when she was gone.

"Neither can I," Maggie agreed. "But hey, I'm not about to complain."

"Well goodie for you," Fred said moodily, and stabbed his potatoes.

The rest of the feast passed without incident. When they were leaving, there was a huge crowd. They pushed their way through and Maggie gasped at the scene. Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, was hanging from a torch by her tail. Above her, there were huge letters written in red. They read: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENIMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE.

"What do you reckon that means?" George said in her ear.

"No idea," she replied. "But whatever it is, it's bad."

In the middle of the crowd stood Harry, Ron and Hermione looking like they would rather be anywhere else than there. Everyone was quiet. But that didn't last long. Just then, Malfoy shouted out "Enemies of the heir beware! You'll be next, mudbloods!" Fred and George cracked their knuckles simultaneously, but before they could do anything, Filch came into the scene. He saw Mrs. Norris for a split second, and then he fell backwards, hands on his face, which wore a look of horror.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" He shouted. Then he looked at Harry, standing in the center of the scene. "You!" he shouted again. "You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll-"

But then he was interrupted by Dumbledore, who had just entered the scene with the other teachers. He walked over to Mrs. Norris and took her off the torch. Then he turned towards Filch, and said, "Come with me Argus. You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."

Then Lockhart butted in. "My office is nearest, Headmaster- Just upstairs- Please feel free-"

"Thank you, Gilderoy." Dumbledore replied. They left then, with Lockhart looking pompous and important. The other teachers then yelled at them to get back to their common rooms, which they did in a hurry. The corridors were full of whispers and anxious looks.

"What do you think did that?" All four of them whispered at once.

"I don't know, but I know it wasn't Harry," said Nina at once.

"I don't think it was him either, but you have to admit it looks suspicious," Fred chimed in."

"Does anyone know what the Chamber of Secrets is?" George interrupted. He said it mainly to Maggie, because she was the one that actually paid attention in class.

She shook her head. "No, I've never heard of it. Hermione would know, but she's with Dumbledore. Hmm…." She said as a thought came to her. "Does anyone know what the book is called that she's always going on about?"

"Hogwarts, A History," Fred said at once. Everyone looked at him. "What?" he said. "She doesn't shut up about it and I pay attention."

"I'll meet you in the common room," Maggie said, and turned down the hall. Time to see if the library was open after a feast.

No one was in the corridors. The halls were dark, and the silence was more frightening than anything.

Surprisingly, it was open. Madame Pince was reluctant to let her in, but after five minutes of begging she agreed. Maggie ran over to the shelf where she thought it would be, and there it was. Madame Pince glared at her when she checked out, so she didn't linger. She ran back to the common room. The hallways were extremely creepy at night, especially with no one else being around. She half expected whatever attacked Mrs. Norris to jump out around the corners and attack her. She kept her wand out the whole time, and after what seemed like forever, she made it back to the common room.

When she got back, Nina was sitting by the fire doing homework.

"Where'd you go?" she asked when Maggie pulled up a chair.

"Library," she answered, settling into her chair.

"You okay?" Nina asked her, looking worried.

"Yeah," she lied, but when Nina kept staring at her, she said, "It was kinda creepy out there, that's all. Where's Fred and George?"

"Bed," She answered. "I was waiting for you. Why did you have to go to the library anyways?"

"To get this," She said, pulling out the book. "I wanted to look up the Chamber of Secrets."

"Brilliant," Nina whispered. "What does it say?"

"Hang on," She said. "Let me find it."

She looked thought the book for a minute, then said "I found it!"

She read aloud: "The Chamber of Secrets is a legend that dates back to around when Hogwarts was founded. When it first opened, as stated previously, the school was open to all children capable of magic. Salazar Slytherin, however, believed the school should only be open to children of the purest blood. For many years, he tried to sway the other founders into thinking this way, but they would not budge. After several years of arguing over the subject, he decided to leave the school. According to legend, before he left the school he created a secret chamber somewhere in the castle. This chamber, known as the Chamber of Secrets, is said to be the home of a terrible monster. Because the symbol of Salazar Slytherin is a snake, many historians believe the monster that lives in the chamber is a snake. The chamber is said to be opened when the heir of Slytherin has returned to the school. The monster will then try to transform the school into Slytherin's vision- an only pure-blood school. Though the chamber has been searched for many times, however, no such place has even been found."

"Wow," Nina whispered when she was done. "Imagine a snake roaming the castle. It just gives you the chills, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Maggie whispered back, more scared than before.

"What do you think it means by 'transforming the school into Slytherin's vision'?"

"What do you think? It means getting rid of the Muggle-borns." She looked around nervously. "When I was going to the library, I felt like there was something else there, and it was going to get me."

"Don't think like that," Nina said firmly. "You'll only terrify yourself. Just don't go out alone, and you'll be fine."

"How do you know?"

"Trust me," Nina said, and Maggie almost believed her.

After breakfast the next morning, the girls brought Fred and George for a walk around the lake. They stopped at their favorite tree and began to climb. When they were all settled at the top, Maggie took the book out of her bag. She read the section on the Chamber of Secrets aloud to them, her voice shaking slightly at the end.

"That's great," Fred said when she was done. "There's a snake lurking somewhere in the castle plotting to kill half the school. Wonderful."

"Maybe it's all a hoax," George said, and everyone looked at him disbelievingly. "Well what if it is? Maybe someone found it in a book and wanted to scare everyone. It wouldn't have been hard to stun Mrs. Norris during the feast."

"Yeah, but if she was stunned, why didn't Dumbledore fix her on the spot?" Maggie argued.

"Maybe he didn't know what was wrong with her at the time, but after he examined her he found out."

"So why was Filch so angry this morning?" Nina asked. "He wouldn't leave the spot where she was found."

"Okay, so maybe it's true, then," he said reluctantly. "What do we do now? We could be attacked at any time."

"You mean Nina and I could be attacked at any time," Maggie said sadly. "The two of you are pure-bloods."

"That settles it, then," George said happily. "You two stay with us, and you won't be attacked. It's fool-proof."

"No, it's not," Nina said. "But it's better than nothing. I guess we have no choice."

"You say that like we're sentencing you to death," Fred said, pretending to be hurt. "Wouldn't you be doing that anyways?"

"Yeah, but I like having a choice in things. Now, I have none."

"I guess that makes sense," he said, considering it. "Let's go spend some quality time together!"

"Oh, shut up," Nina said, and pushed him off his branch. Laughing, everyone else followed him down.


	5. Chapter 5: Because of the Cat

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! I rewrote this chapter like ten times so I hope you like it!

Chapter 5: Because of the Cat

The next few weeks were filled with whispers surrounding the corridors about who the heir of Slytherin might be. No one wanted to be left on their own in the halls, so people were always seen together, including the two sets of twins. When Fred and George had Quidditch practice, the girls stayed in the common room—most of the time. Nina sometimes left and did her own thing, leaving Maggie behind to do homework or something.

The classes were getting more and more challenging. In Lockhart's class, however, he mostly had the class reenact scenes from his books. The only good part about this was that Fred and George often volunteered when there was a dangerous creature to be played. They never stuck to the script, and often attacked Lockhart depending on what they were playing. He had had them for detention numerous times. The best part was that Lockhart was so stupid that he kept on choosing them. "You'd think he would learn," Fred said one day when they were leaving his classroom. Ten minutes before that, he had gone off script again and bit Lockhart's neck because he was supposed to be playing a vampire. When no blood came out, he tried to bite one of the veins on his wrist to see if it would then. Lockhart then froze him and gave him detention for a week.

Transfiguration was Maggie's favorite class at the moment, even though it was the most difficult. They were practicing vanishing, and after she had vanished one of whatever they were working on, she just played with the animals. When they started out with snails, she kept putting them on the wall to see if they would stick. When Nina left the class that day, there was a snail in her hair, courtesy of Maggie. To Maggie's delight, she screamed when she found it in the Great Hall.

A few classes after that, Maggie had progressed to vanishing kittens. There were a few in a cage in the classroom, and she picked the cutest one she could find. But instead of vanishing it, she soon became so absorbed with playing with the cat.

"Oh, I want to keep this kitten so much!" she said, after only ten minutes with it.

"You know you're going to have to vanish it in like five minutes, right?" Nina asked her. "And knowing you, it will go away on the first try. So say your goodbyes now." Maggie knew she was right.

A few minutes later, Professor McGonagall came over and asked her to show her how well she was doing. Maggie began to panic, because she didn't want to have to make the cat go away.

"Umm…." She began hesitantly. "Could it be possible for me to practice on another cat?"

McGonagall looked at her for a minute, and then said "Because you are the only one who has made considerable progress, Miss Grandeur, I will bring the cat back after you have vanished it."

"Oh, thank you, Professor!" Maggie said happily. Then she said the spell to make the cat vanish. After the fourth try, the cat was gone.

Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly, and made the cat appear again. "Good work, Miss Grandeur." Then she turned to Nina, Fred, and George. "The rest of you should have watched that, because I notice you have made very little progress with your frogs. Your homework tonight will to be to practice, because I want all of those frogs gone by next class." She left to go see another group.

"How'd you do it, Mag?" George asked her glumly. "I'm never going to be able to make this damn frog go away."

"Oh, you'll get it," replied Maggie, who was only half paying attention to him, because the rest of her attention was for the cat.

When class was over, Maggie was the last one out the door. The rest of the week, she snuck back into the classroom every day to see her cat. She wasn't afraid of walking in the halls alone anymore, because it looked like the Heir of Slytherin wasn't going to do anything anytime soon.

The second time she snuck in, she finally gave him a name: Rufus. When she told Nina this, she only shook her head pityingly. "Someone's going to catch up to you one day and be able to vanish cats. You'll go back one day and find it gone. I'll say this once: Stop visiting the cat now, so that when it's not there anymore, you won't be as crushed."

But Maggie didn't pay any attention to her. She would see the cat as often as she liked, and no one was going to stop her. She knew Nina was right, and that the cat would be gone one day, but she told herself that when the day came, she wouldn't be too upset. So she went back time after time, bringing Rufus food and things to play with.

About two weeks later, the rest of the class was trying to vanish cats, too. She knew this might be her last time seeing Rufus, so she brought him lots of food. She had been in there for around an hour when she heard McGonagall's voice. "Back again?" she asked tiredly.

Maggie jumped up. "P-Professor," she stammered. "I didn't think you would be in here. Um, I'll just go, then…." And she started towards the door.

"Wait, Miss Grandeur," McGonagall stopped her. "I know that you've been in here al lot. May I ask why?"

"Well," she said slowly. "I've sort of been visiting the cat you brought back for me that day."

McGonagall raised her eyebrows. "Is that why? Well, then, I'm guessing you're very fond of this cat, then?"

Maggie nodded.

"Hmm…." Professor McGonagall said, thinking. "Well, you know, I don't really have anything to do with these animals when my classes are done practicing with them. I suppose, once all of my classes are done practicing on them, you could take the cat with you."

"Oh really, Professor?" Maggie exclaimed. "That would be so nice! Thank you so much! I promise I'll take extremely good care of him."

"I don't doubt you will," McGonagall said, surprised at her enthusiasm.

A week after that, Maggie walked out of the room with the cat in her arms. She was smiling from ear to ear, and nothing could crush her spirits.

The following morning was a Saturday, and it was time for the first Quidditch match of the year: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Maggie and Nina wished the team good luck as they passed the locker rooms on their way to the stands.

"What happens if it rains?" Maggie asked, looking up at the unpleasant sky.

"They keep playing, stupid," Nina said to Maggie as if she were talking to a third grader. "You've seen them play in the rain before. Actually, though," she said, taking another look at the sky. "I see your point. I really don't feel like getting wet. What's that water-repelling spell again?"

Maggie rolled her eyes as she pointed her wand above their head and said, "Impervius!"

A few minutes later, the teams flew out and started playing. Maggie was watching the whole game, but for the most part she was paying attention to George. It was hard to see because of the rain, but even then she noticed something wasn't right. He was staying with Harry the whole time, and she could see a bludger come for him repeatedly. When they got to the other end of the pitch, Fred joined them. Meanwhile, the Slytherin beaters were hitting the other bludger towards the Gryffindor chasers, preventing them from scoring, and allowing their team to score. They were beating Gryffindor 60 to 0.

Finally, Wood called a time-out. It looked like the team was arguing. When they got back into the air, Fred and George were no longer following Harry, who was making every turn possible in order to avoid the bludger that was still following him.

When he got near Malfoy, he stopped for a second—but it was a second too long. The bludger slammed into his arm. Then he started going towards Malfoy as fast as he could. The crowd gasped—they thought he was going to attack him. Malfoy moved out of his way, scared. Harry made a grabbing motion with his good arm, and the crowd knew he got the snitch. But while he was getting it, he was holding onto the broom with nothing but his legs. He went straight down to the ground and landed in the mud. The crowd cheered and cheered anyways.

Ron and Hermione were making their way down to the pitch to see if Harry was all right, along with a number of other teachers (including Lockhart), Maggie, Nina, and a scrawny-looking first year with a camera. The team had already gathered around him, with the exception of Fred and George, who were trying to get the bludger into the box. When they reached Harry, Lockhart immediately bent over him. Harry opened his eyes and immediately and said, "Oh. No. Not you."

Lockhart looked around and said, "Doesn't know what he's saying. Don't worry, Harry, I'm about to fix your arm."

"No!" Harry shouted. "I'll keep it like this, thanks." He tried to sit up, but was unable.

The kid with the camera started taking pictures rapidly. "I don't want a photo of this, Colin," Harry said irritably.

"Lie down, Harry," Lockhart said, trying to calm him down. "It's a simple charm I've used countless times."

"Why can't I just go to the hospital wing?" Harry demanded.

"He really should, Professor, said Wood, who was smiling."Great capture, Harry, really spectacular, your best yet I'd say—"

"Stand back," Lockhart told the crowd, who obeyed, not wanting to get hit by his likely-to-go-wrong spell. Harry tried to protest yet again, but it was too late—Lockhart had already waved his wand. It looked like his arm was deflating—there was nothing holding it in place. A second later, Maggie realized his bones were gone.

"Ah," Lockhart said uncomfortably. "Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is, the bones are no longer broken. That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, just toddle up to the hospital wing—ah, Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, would you escort him?—and Madam Pomfrey will be able to tidy you up a bit." Then he walked away like nothing was wrong.

When Ron and Hermione took Harry up to the hospital wing, the crowd went with them. Fred and George had finally put the bludger away, and they, along with Maggie and Nina, went up to the castle to have lunch, talking about the match. Fred and George explained about the bludger, and how it had only gone for Harry, but none of them were able to come up with a way that could have happened.

Later that night, the four of them were taking a walk around the castle. Maggie had Rufus in her arms, and it was getting dark.

They were discussing what could have happened to the bludger earlier today.

"Do you think it could have been the Heir of Slytherin?" Maggie asked, after she could come to no other conclusion.

"Come on, Mag. There is no Heir of Slytherin. Whoever sent that message was just trying to scare everyone."

"Maybe you're right…." Maggie said, but somehow she doubted it. She just didn't want to argue with her sister. She looked away, and by doing so, she looked down. Then she noticed one of her shoes was untied. "Wait, Nine, can you hold Rufus for a minute? I have to tie my shoe for a sec and I don't want him to run away."

"Sure," Nina complied. She took the cat, but Rufus didn't seem too happy. When she tried to pet him, he whipped his paw across her arm with his claws out. Then she dropped him, and he bolted down the hall.

Maggie chased after him, screaming "Rufus! Come back! RUFUS!"

Fred and George followed her, but turned around halfway down the hall when they realized Nina wasn't with them. "You coming?" they shouted to her.

"Not feeling the love towards that cat right now," she said, examining her arm, which had blood gushing out of it. "I'll meet you in the common room."

"Do you want someone to stay with you?" they asked.

She shook her head and said, "You'll need both of you to find her now." And they took off.

She looked through her bag and found a roll of bandage that she had used before when she got hurt and didn't want to go to the hospital wing. She wrapped it around her arm, and started back to the common room. She was still mad about that whole cat incident, and was kind of glad that her sister had to go chase it now. But no, that wasn't fair. Maggie didn't tell the cat to do it. Maybe the cat was just a psycho. Or maybe the Slytherins experimented on it during their class. That might be it. Trained it to attack the Gryffindors. Except for Maggie, because she spent more time with it beforehand.

She was pondering this when she saw the scrawny boy with the camera. "Hey!" she called. "What are you doing here?"

The boy looked like she had frightened him. "Oh, nothing. I was just taking pictures of the castle at night. It's so cool out here when there's no one around! There's all these shadows and the light reflects in weird ways in the dark. I've never even been in a castle before so I wanted to see it at night. I'm just so glad to be here! I didn't even know I was a wizard until—"

"Whoa!" Nina cut him off. The kid was giving her a headache. "Just be quiet for a minute, okay? Let me talk, and then you can go on and on about whatever you want, okay?" the boy nodded excitedly. "What's your name?"

"Colin Creevy, I'm in Gryffindor, too, and I think I've seen you around before but there are just so many people here it's hard to know them all and—"

"Okay, that's enough," Nina cut him off again. "Well, Colin, I think we should get back to the common room before we get into trouble, okay?" The boy nodded, and she started walking.

"Okay, that's all right if we go back," he went on. "It was so cool to be out here at night anyways, and I'm glad I got to come out here, because…." The boy droned on and on, even after Nina stopped pretending to listen. The halls were filled with the sounds of Colin's voice, and there were no other sounds, until she heard a weird hissing noise coming down the other hall.

Immediately she pulled out her wand. There wasn't supposed to be anything like that at Hogwarts. "Colin, shut up!" she whispered, and to her surprise, he did. Maybe he heard it, too. She pulled Colin back against the wall, behind a statue. He had his camera ready in his hands.

Suddenly she felt very scared and vulnerable. She never hid from anything, and now look at her. Hiding behind a statue with a boy who would gladly go and take a picture of whatever the thing was. She couldn't just wait here. It wasn't her. So, instead of standing there, she told Colin to stay there, and moved up the corridor towards the intersection where the thing would come.

She looked back at Colin, who smiled at her, then got his camera ready. She heard the click of his camera, and then suddenly he collapsed. She held her wand out towards the thing, then turned and saw a huge green thing.

Then she collapsed, too.

Maggie was waiting in the common room for her sister. She should have been here before them, because it took awhile to hunt down Rufus. Where had she gone?

It was after midnight, and she was the only one in the common room. Fred and George had waited with her for awhile, but eventually they crashed. She woke them up and told them to go to bed. Half asleep, they complied.

Maggie was starting to get really worried. The only thing that was running through her mind was she should have been here by now. She began to drift off to sleep, but stopped herself. She had to be awake when Nina got back so that she could yell at her for being this late. Ten minutes later, however, she was dozing in her chair.

The sun woke her up the next morning. At first she tried to remember why she was sleeping in a chair, then what happened last night came rushing back to her. She sprinted up to the dormitory to see if Nina had come and not woke her up, but her bed was empty. She ran down the stairs to the door to the common room, when she nearly ran into Professor McGonagall. Her face was grave, and Maggie knew it had to do with her sister. She tried to ask her what had happened, but Professor McGonagall held up a hand and said, "Follow me."

They walked through the castle to the hospital wing. By the time they got there, Maggie was shaking with nervousness. Professor McGonagall turned to her and said, "We are not sure what has exactly happened to her yet, but it will be investigated further." She let Maggie take the lead to her sister's bed. She saw Harry in his bed, but was too numb to acknowledge him. When she got towards the back wall of the room, she saw her.

She was lying in a stiff position, holding her wand out in front of her. She looked like she had been walking towards whatever had got her, and she had a look of pure terror on her face. Tears came rolling down her cheeks. She just stared at her sister with a deep feeling of loneliness. What would she do without her sister? She was always with her. The two of them never did anything without each other.

She sat like that, never moving, all day. Some people came by and talked to her, including Fred and George, but she barely heard them. She wasn't focused on anything but her sister's unmoving body. She didn't leave until Madam Pomfrey came by after dark, telling her she couldn't stay there anymore. She walked numbly back to the common room, somewhat aware that she was with Fred and George. When she got to the common room, she walked straight up to her bed and collapsed.

What would she do now? She had no idea.

Again, I'm sorry I didn't update sooner! I couldn't think of any other way to end the chapter, so I just left it like that.

Please review!


	6. Chapter 6: The Dueling Club

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! I know you don't want to hear the homework excuse so I'm just going to skip that!

(I know I should have put this in awhile ago, but I forgot, so here it is now) DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, of anything you would recognize from the books or movies

Please review!

Chapter 6: The Dueling Club

For the next few days, everything was a blur for Maggie. She didn't know what to do without her sister. She was always there with her, laughing with her, or talking to her. She had protected her at the orphanage when they were younger, because Maggie had been extremely quiet, and it was easy for people to step on her. Only Nina had made them stop.

She seldom talked to anyone, even Fred and George. Countless times they had tried to cheer her up, but she never cracked a smile. She was absorbed in her own thoughts, which were made up of panic, fear, and guilt. She felt guilty because if she hadn't gone to get her cat, Nina wouldn't have been alone and would still be here with her. She shouldn't have tied her shoe; it was a stupid thing to do. The worst part was that she didn't know what had attacked her sister—it could be anything, or anyone. It could be right under her nose and she wouldn't know. The fear of something that she encountered every day attacking her was driving her crazy.

Fred and George must have had this same thought, because they never left her alone anymore. Before Nina was attacked, she could have gotten away from them if she had really wanted to—it was the fear of being attacked that kept her from doing it. Now, she wanted nothing more than to be alone with her thoughts and not have to half-listen, or pretend to half-listen, to anyone and just be by herself, but Fred and George wouldn't let her. They never took their eyes off of her. When she had to go to the bathroom, one of them would wait outside the door. Even during the night, they took turns sleeping in the common room, on the off-chance that she decided to sneak out. Once, George had caught her doing this, and she had been sent up to bed, disappointed.

The only time she was ever in a room alone was when she went to visit her sister in the hospital wing, and she pushed them out the door. They waited outside the door for her. She visited Nina every day after class. During these visits, she would talk to her. She told her about her day, and how sorry she was for letting this happen to her, and she told her that she missed her. Madam Pomfrey told her that it was pointless, because petrified people couldn't hear, but she didn't care. It was her fault Nina was in here, and she was going to make it up to her somehow, even if it meant talking to her motionless body day after day.

She could tell that Fred and George were getting frustrated with her. They were with her all the time, but she barely glanced her way. For the first few days, they were understanding and sympathetic, but now they just wanted her back.

Rufus was also feeling some neglect, as well as the rest of her friends. She held him partially responsible, because he had been the one to scratch Nina and run away.

About a week later, Maggie was walking down the halls with Fred and George after class. They saw their younger sister, Ginny, walking down the hall towards them, looking terribly upset.

"Quick, hide!" Fred shouted, and George pulled Maggie behind a statue. Maggie gave him a furious look, but he motioned for her to be quiet, and she said nothing. When Ginny got close to them, Fred and George jumped out into the hall simultaneously, screaming. Ginny screamed and ran down the hall. Suddenly, Maggie was extremely irritated with them. All of her fear and guilt was transferred to rage, and she began to let it out.

"I can't believe you did that to her! She's your little sister, and she's terrified anyways without you two helping her! Jumping out and scaring her to death is not going to cheer her up! It wouldn't cheer her up if she wasn't already terrified! Are you even sorry?"

"Yeah, Mag, we are…. We just didn't know she'd react like that…."

"You DIDN'T KNOW? Have you been living under a rock? Everyone is terrified! With the exception of you two, apparently. Why do you have to go around increasing everyone's fear and anxiety? Why? What good does it do?"

"Mag, we're sorry," George said, and they looked like they meant it, but Maggie didn't feel like dealing with them anymore. Still extremely angry, she stalked off. She turned the corner, and halfway down the hall, she began to run. She didn't know why she was running, it just felt right. Like if she ran away from everything, she would get something accomplished.

When she was on the other side of the school, she sat down on a staircase to catch her breath. Then, tears started pouring out of her eyes. All of her worry, grief, and stress was finally taking its toll on her.

She didn't know how long she had been there, when George walked up to her. "Hey," he said quietly, sitting down next to her. "I'm sorry. Well, we're sorry. We didn't mean to scare her…. We were just trying to cheer her up in…you know…our way. Don't hate us…." He mumbled.

"It's okay," she said, wiping her eyes. "I didn't mean to yell at you like that. I'm just so stressed out right now." She sniffed. "I don't know what to do…. With Nina gone, I just…. I don't know. I just feel so lost, like I'm nobody anymore. I feel so alone…. Like now that she's gone, I'm not complete. I really just don't know anything anymore." She sighed, tears still streaming down her face.

"Well I do know something," George said softly. "And that's that you're not alone. You've never been alone. And you never will be. Nina isn't the only one who cares about you. There's still me, and Fred, and Angelina, and Lee, and all your other friends."

"I guess," she said. "I just feel so isolated now."

"If you would just talk to us, you wouldn't feel that way," he said, exasperated. "We've all been trying to talk to you, and make you feel better, but you've been shutting us all out."

"Yeah," she sighed. "That is my own fault, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "It is."

They were silent for a minute, and then Maggie said, "I'm sorry. For shutting you all out. I'll try not to anymore."

Smiling, he said, "That's all I ask." Getting to his feet, he said, "Come on, let's go to dinner."

Looking up at him, Maggie half-smiled. "That's all you ever think about, isn't it?"

Pretending to be offended, he exclaimed, "Not true!" and pulled her to her feet.

As they were walking down the hall, she said, "Thanks," and wrapped her arm around his waist, giving him a hug. Smiling, he put his arm around her shoulders and said, "Don't mention it." Then they walked to dinner like that.

Over the next few days, Maggie felt much…lighter. There really wasn't another word for it. She didn't feel like she was spiraling down into nothing, like she had before. Her heart didn't feel as heavy inside her as it had been before. She took part in the other's conversations more often, but it still wasn't as much as before her sister's attack. There would always be a part of her that felt lonely, but she decided to try and ignore it as best as she could.

One day, there was a notice up on the bulletin board in the common room saying there was going to be a dueling club the next day. "Do you think we should go?" Maggie asked the twins.

"Why not? It'll be cool to hex people with an excuse," Fred answered.

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised that's the reason you're excited," she muttered.

The next day after dinner, over half the school turned up for the dueling club. Maggie wondered who would be teaching it, but no one seemed to know. Then Lockhart walked up onto a golden stage that went all the way across one of the walls. Snape followed, glaring at Lockhart the whole way.

"Of course," Maggie muttered under her breath.

"Gather round, gather round!" Lockhart called to the crowd of students. "Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions—for full details, see my published works."

"Those things he made us all buy are not 'published works'," Maggie said to the twins. "They barely get to be called storybooks."

"A bit frustrated, are we?" George asked her mockingly.

"Can you tell?" Maggie said, her voice full of sarcasm.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart went on, oblivious to Snape's never wavering glare. "He tells me he knows a tiny bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry—you'll still have your potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"I would love it if they killed each other at the same time!" Fred whispered loudly, and George grinned at him.

Then, Lockhart bowed elaborately, while Snape jerked his head down for a fraction of a second. Then they raised their wands, pointed at the other.

"As you can see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the crowd, and George snorted. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"But that would be doing us all a favor," muttered Fred.

"Don't look so down, Freddie, Snape might still kill him," George said reassuringly.

"One, two, three!" Lockhart counted. Both of them pointed their wands straight at the other and Snape cried, "Expelliarmus!" Lockhart was blasted off his feet, and he flew through the air off the stage, and smashed into the wall. Fred and George began to laugh, while Maggie watched Lockhart to see if he would stir. After a minute, he got to his feet unsteadily.

"Well, there you have it!" he said, getting back onto the stage. "That was the disarming charm—as you can see, I've lost my wand—ah, thank you, Miss Brown—yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you, it would have only been too easy—however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…."

"Looks like you'll get your murder, Fred," George said, looking at Snape's face, which was absolutely livid.

Lockhart might have noticed this, because he hurriedly went on, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me…."

Lockhart and Snape went around putting everyone into pairs. Unfortunately, Snape got to them first and would not let them partner up together. He put Fred with Marcus Flint, George with Allan Hanker, a Slytherin seventh year, and Maggie with Ava Dunham, a Slytherin third year who was a lot bigger than her.

"You're going down," Dunham snarled at her as they faced each other. Maggie was instantly afraid of her, despite being older. The girl had to be six feet tall, compared to Maggie's 5'6", and she was a lot heavier than Maggie, who was extremely skinny.

"Help me!" She mouthed frantically to George.

"Don't worry, Mag, you'll kick her butt!" he told her. When she just looked at him, he said, "Look, she might be bigger than you, but you're the better witch. You could beat that brainless troll in a duel with your hands tied." This calmed her down slightly, and Maggie nodded her thanks. "Oh, and don't forget to hold your wand in the 'accepted combat postion'!" he added, making her laugh.

"Face you partners!" Lockhart called from the stage. "And bow!" Trembling, Maggie slowly bent over towards her partner, who didn't move an inch.

"Wands at the ready!" Lockhart continued. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents—only to disarm them—we don't want any accidents—one…two…three!"

Maggie shouted "Expelliarmus!" and Ava went flying back. It only took her a minute to get up, and she did it glaring at Maggie. Then she came charging at her with all her might, not holding up her wand. Panicking, Maggie put up a shield charm, knowing it would do no good, since she wasn't a spell, but suddenly she stopped a foot away from the shield, as if it would hurt her. Maggie laughed as she tried to get to her without touching it, with no success. "Idiot!" she gasped, breathless with laughter. Surprisingly, she was still able to hole up her wand.

"What did you just say?" Ava demanded. "Take this thing down and let's fight!"

"It's a duel, not a wrestling match," Maggie told her, and finally her laughter subsided. "If you want to fight with magic, I won't object, but I'm not having a fistfight with you."

"Fine," Ava said, crossing her arms. "But you can't hold it up forever."

"Maybe not, but I can hold it up until the dueling club is over," Maggie replied, not blinking. She looked around at everyone who was still battling. George was standing over Hanker's unconscious body, and Fred and Flint were still throwing spells at each other. She heard Lockhart shout to everyone to stop, but no one listened. But then, Snape shouted "Finite Incantatem!" and everyone's spells went away, which included Maggie's shield charm.

She didn't think Ava would still come after her, so she turned to George and grinned, because Hanker was still on the ground. While she was distracted, however, Ava came slamming into her side, tackling her to the ground. When her head hit the hard concrete floor, she blacked out.

Not exactly how I wanted to end it originally, but it sets up the next chapter nicely. Please Review!


	7. Author's Note

Author's Note:

So, this story was published a few years ago, as you can tell, and I haven't looked at it since I last updated it until today. Sorry, but my inspiration was gone and I didn't know where to go with the story. I knew where I want to end up, but not how to get there. I have a pretty good idea now about what I want to do with it, so if you want me to continue this story, please review or send me a PM or just click follow, and I'll start writing this again!

P.S. I promise my writing is A LOT better now, so you won't have to read any more simple sentences again! (Unless I'm using them to add effect.) I was reading it today and thinking, 'Oh, God, I what was I thinking? I was an atrocious writer back then!' But I promise I'm a lot better now!

Oh, and if you guys think I should rewrite any of the chapters, I can do that too!

Please tell me what you think!


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